Rift: Game review

For those of you who never heard of it, Rift is a fantasy MMORPG that takes place in the land of Telara. The game was released in March 2011 and is free to play for anyone who likes this type of gaming sessions. However, you should know that initially, the game required a monthly subscription or prepaid game cards. The free-to-play version was released in June 2013 and now you can reach the maximum level without spending any money. There is the possibility to have the Patron status, but you have to pay for it. If you choose this one, you’ll get interesting bonuses.

Just like with most MMORPG, the action moves around two factions fighting each other. In Rift, the factions are separated in races and classes and they also have to battle other common enemies.

The gameplay

Telara is a magical land where the main Planes (Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Life, and Death) intersect with each other. Now, each of these Planes has a dragon deity as a representative and they are forming an alliance (the Blood Storm) in order to take over Telara where they can be all-powerful. According to the storyline, this is not the first time when they tried such a thing, but in the past they were defeated. This led to 5 of the dragons being enchained and their leader being cast out of the realm into elemental Planes.

However, this was only a temporary solution as the leader dragon Regulos managed to get inside Telara and opened rifts through which the other dragons could influence the inhabitants with their mind power. Rifts are areas where the elemental Planes meet, creating areas of elemental instability. Once one of these rifts is open, it is able to create monsters that will spread destruction everywhere they go.

As a player you will be an Ascended, a super-human hero warrior who was resurrected to defeat Regulos and the other dragons for good. Your main job is to fight the monsters that manage to escape the rifts and close the rifts that get open.

Players are divided into two factions: the Guardians and the Defiant. The Guardians are highly religious and they put their trust in the supreme gods, the Vigil. On the other hand the Defiant are (as the name says) different and they base their actions on science. That’s why there are two types of Ascended players: Guardians and Defiant. The Ascended Guardians were resurrected by the Vigil, the supreme gods in Telara while the Ascended Defiant warriors were resurrected with scientific methods. So, besides the fight against dragons, as a player you also have to overthrow the religion of the Vigil.

Expansions

The game has only one expansion called Storm Legion which was released in November 2012. This expansion came with quite a lot of changes and among the most interesting ones we should mention:

A bigger Telara – more land to explore

The idea of dimensions was introduced in the game – dimensions are simple instances, set apart from the Telara environment where you can use your creativity for decorations. Dimensions can be bought and visited and if you like one you can actually give it a ‘+1’.

Each class received additional soul choices

The maximum level is 60

Action and leveling

Usually the action is based on quest and PvP (player vs player) or PvE (player vs environment) combat. You can choose to level with more than one character and you are not forced to follow the same route every time. This gives the game charm and makes it more interesting when it comes to exploration of the map.

If you’re not patient enough to use questing for leveling up, you can also use the Instant Adventure mode. The basic idea is that the game is quite dynamic and you are not forced to follow one direction.